It started with a road trip.

Triprr wasn't born from a pitch deck, a market study or a carefully constructed startup idea. It was born from something we needed ourselves.

We were planning a long road trip together. As the number of places, possibilities and practical details began to grow, Ida suggested creating a PowerPoint presentation to keep track of everything we wanted to see and do. Robert was convinced there had to be a better tool for it. So we started looking.

We found plenty of travel apps, but nothing that matched the way we thought about a journey. Some were itinerary planners. Others were booking sites. Some focused on maps, lists or recommendations. A few were so eager to sell us a subscription that we could barely try the product without first handing over a credit card.

But none of them seemed to understand the most important thing:

The trip itself.

Between us, we had travelled across more than 70 countries. We knew that a real journey is more than a route, a hotel reservation or a list of attractions.

It begins with scattered ideas, saved places and conversations. It grows as we discover possibilities, invite people, compare alternatives and make decisions. Then it becomes something we actually live — and eventually something we want to remember and share.

We couldn't find one place where all of that belonged together.

So Robert — a stubborn software engineer who rarely stops once he has started — decided to build something "quickly." The first version was never intended to become a company. We simply wanted something that would help us plan our own road trip around what actually mattered.

But the little tool turned out to be surprisingly useful. Then Ida's communications brain kicked in.

As an experienced communications consultant with a particular focus on social media, Ida saw possibilities that had not been part of the original plan.

What if travellers could plan together instead of sending links across five different apps? What if inspiration could become part of a real trip? What if the same place could hold the route, the conversations, the practical details and the memories afterwards? What if AI could help without taking control away from the traveller?

With every question — and every new version — the small tool we had built for our road trip became something larger. It became Triprr.

Today, Ida is the CEO of Triprr, while Robert leads our small product and technology team. Somehow, the road trip we were trying to organise has turned into a much bigger ambition.

We believe travel should not be fragmented across planning tools, booking sites, maps, chats, screenshots, social media and forgotten notes. The trip should be at the centre.

It should begin wherever the first idea appears. It should grow through conversations, maps, discoveries and decisions. Friends and travel companions should be able to plan together. AI should understand the traveller and the journey, offer genuinely useful possibilities and help turn ideas into action — while leaving the important decisions with the people taking the trip.

And when the travelling begins, the plan should not suddenly become useless. The same trip should continue to help along the way, adapt when reality changes and eventually become the story and memory of what actually happened.

One place where a trip can be dreamed, planned, shared, lived, remembered and used to inspire the next one.

We have big ambitions for Triprr, but our priority is not to build the most aggressive money-making machine in travel. Our priority is to build the best product we can.

We believe that if Triprr genuinely helps people travel better — and if we tell its story well — it can become a successful business. But commercial opportunities should never be allowed to quietly decide what advice a traveller receives.

• The best experience comes first.
• The most useful recommendation comes first.
• The option that genuinely fits the traveller comes first — even when another option might earn us more money.

We may work with booking platforms and other travel partners, but Triprr should never become a wall of affiliate links disguised as advice. Commercial relationships can help support the product; they must never control it.

Some features will need to be part of a paid plan. Advanced AI, live information and other technology cost real money every time they are used. We have to place reasonable limits around those features — not because we want to hide every useful idea behind a paywall, but because Triprr must be sustainable enough to survive and keep improving.

We want to be honest and fair about that balance: charge where providing something has a meaningful cost, while protecting the usefulness, independence and enjoyment of the product.